Reali-TEA sets in for GOP(Daily Kos)

Conventional wisdom is that Republicans are lucky to have tea partiers on their side. The problem with that thinking is that tea partiers already were on the GOP’s side: they are basically conservative Republicans.

To some degree, tea partiers have done a service to the GOP by diverting attention of conservatives from the stained GOP brand, and they’ve also made conservatism relevant to the media. On the other hand, extremism and antiquated racial attitudes have come to define the tea party movement for many Americans, and most Republicans are smart enough to know they can’t afford to be seen as racist extremists.

All of which leads us to a report in Politico today from Jonathan Allen and Jake Sherman: